Cycling: Tadej Pogacar wins his second Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Tadej Pogacar won his second Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday after a solo 35 km raid from La Redoute to move ahead with 1:39 ahead of Frenchman Romain Bardet and 2:02 over Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel. This is the sixth victory in a Monument for the 25-year-old Slovenian who ranks alongside Van der Poel in the list of greatest classics.

Tadej Pogacar’s revenge

Already winner in 2021, Pogacar took his revenge in the Doyenne that he had missed in 2022 after the death of his partner’s mother, to whom he dedicated his victory by raising his arm to the sky on the finish line, and its heavy fall last year. Big favorite at the start, he, as expected, made the difference in the terrible climb of La Redoute (1.6 km at 9.4%), at the same place where the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, absent due to injury this year, had forged his victories during the last two editions.

Pogacar then widened his advantage in the last thirty kilometers, speeding through the last difficulty, the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, to win his seventh victory in ten days of racing this season, after his triumph at the Strade Bianche, already after a fantastic ride of 81 km, and his raid on the Tour of Catalonia (4 stages + the general).

Van der Poel discreet, but still on the podium

Behind Pogacar, a group of pursuers broke free at the top of the Redoute with the Irishman Ben Healy and three Frenchmen, Romain Bardet, Benoît Cosnefroy and Romain Grégoire. Bardet, already third in Liège in 2018, broke away in the terrible percentages of La Roche-aux-Faucons to then resist alone the return of a small reformed group in the last kilometers.

Van der Poel, winner of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this year, did not really weigh on the race but held on to catch up with a small group, around thirty seconds behind Bardet, and settle it at the sprint to get on his first podium in Liège. The Dutchman had lost much of his illusions more than 80 kilometers from the finish when he was delayed, along with several other favorites, in a fall which cut the peloton in two in a narrowing approaching the coast of Mont-le-Soie.

Pogacar will now turn his attention to conquering the Tour of Italy in May and his goal of becoming the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the Giro and Tour de France in the same year, a feat which would further add to his legend.